Free Management Dissertations - At This Rate, China's Gross Domestic Product Will Be Double That Of Germany
At this rate, China's gross domestic product will be double that of Germany by 2010 and will surpass Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, by 2020. India has an annual growth of 6 percent. This growth in their economies has seen a rise in their middle class. Most adults still live below Western standards, but there are more than 50 million people in China in this class. India has 300 million people in its middle class, a group larger than the US population (Durand, M. 2004).
Drug prices vary from country to country; developing countries cannot afford expensive medicines that are under patent. Multinational companies can choose to sell a product at a lower price in these countries or face the challenge of piracy or parallel trade. Types of diseases in Third World countries vary from those in developed nations. Because of the lack of profit from distributing pharmaceutical products in these countries, MNCs are reluctant to conduct research to develop new drugs to treat these diseases (Joshi, H. 2003).
Rawls, (1971) discussed that necessary drugs should be priced so that ability and willingness to pay is within the reach of everyone The main principle of pricing for essential drugs should be on the basis of need, based on a conception of distributive justice (Rawls (1971) cited in D'Mello, B. 2002). Western pharmaceutical companies argue that it is the excessive cost of drug development forces drug prices to be high Drugs have to be tested over a number of years before they can be given. Even after all this expense very few drugs are successful in reaching the markets (Joshi, H. 2003).
Both in India and China there is a network of traditional pharmaceutical companies, these until 2005 have been protected by their own laws. Indian producers, which so far have been sheltered from global competition by the country's patent act and other legislation curtailing foreign participation in the domestic market, will be subject to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. India's patent laws had allowed their pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs; this led to a flourishing industry that manufactured drugs at a fraction of the cost of western products. This kept the western manufacturers out of the Indian market (Tong, A. 2004). In 2005, India is planning to introduce patent protection act, to comply the WTO membership (Durand, M. 2004).
In both India and China there are high tariffs acting as barriers of entry, although they have underdeveloped health infrastructures and limited communications with consumers. India's individual states sponsor health plans, patients cover 80 percent of their own health expenses. Tight government control of healthcare in China is also giving way to a mixed bag of public and private providers. The Chinese government legalised foreign ownership of retail drugstores in 2003 (Durand, M. 2004).
Dissertations - Free Management Dissertations
